Lately, it seems, whenever anyone has made some progress in the League of Legends ranked system – by “anyone” I mean those in the three first league Bronze, Silver and Gold.
They always happen to have some ‘Sage’ advice to offer.

In the vein of :

“If you are good enough, you can always carry your team to Victory”

“Ignore those who troll just concentrate on improving your mechanics”

“It’s never your team.. it’s you. You just aren’t good enough”

Well, clearly their League experience differ from mine own. Because my League experience, is unequivocally a TEAM experience.
Let us Debunk some of these myths.

Myths

No matter how good you are you can never carry a team with four other players who are

A: Way below your level of mechanics.B: Troll so hard you lose the ability to rage. Because you become numb from the sheer stupidity.C: Who Cannot follow simple instructions.

Let’s elucidate.

If you are a good League player and possess good mechanical skill and twitch reflexes. You can carry your game to a degree. This will fall off if the rest of your team is lacking enough skill to not waste the advantages you have given them.

By doing things like dying too often, thus negating the advantages by feeding the enemy team.
Lacking the ability to know which items to get and lacking a clear build path. To give you an example.
Say you are carrying and getting your team ahead in gold. But the Olaf top decides to rush a Phantom Dancer first ? What just happened? It is now a 4v5 because he will be totally useless when the team fight starts.

If you have players who are only on the team to grief carrying that team becomes exponentially more strenuous.
Trolling does more than deny your team of a competent fifth player. Chances are he WILL be feeding the enemy team, but most important of all, he would have utterly destroyed the moral of your team. The mental state of the players on your team is important.

Therefore, when ahead it is easier to stay ahead; because you are more relaxed and calm. Not only does this make your responses better but not having a massive rage headache allows you to make decisions that are better thought out: Like not rushing baron 1v5 while the other 4 members of your team are dead.
I am not just here to say what cannot work. Let us look at some of the things that will.

As I mentioned moral before the first thing you should do is secure your team moral from Champion select.
To do this it is very simple.

Never expect to play the role you want to play, but expect to play the role no one else wants to play. The risk of getting a player who will troll because he did not get his pick is very high, and as you cannot expect anyone else to care about team moral. You must make that your priority.
It is better having a sub optimal player in a role where he has good moral. Than a good player in a role where he has bad moral as he is more likely to not do his best form the feeling of being “cheated” from his intended role.

Learn when to Dodge.

This might sound contradictory, as it might sounds like promoting troll behaviour. However, if you are competent you can identify when a team composition will not work against the enemy team’s team comp. Therefore, you have to make the executive decision to either dodge and lose 5 League points. Or Play and lose 20 League point, then proceed to go into a massive 20 game losing streak where you find your self at the bottom of your respective division – assuming you were not at the bottom to begin with.

PS. Unless you are in the upper 5 percentile of players , you will always have room to improve and you NEED you team to win. You need them to show up to team fights when asked. You need them to all push a lane when asked. And most importantly you need them to not attack the tank while the ADC stays and kills you all one by one.

These days, people have a lot of complain about when it comes to game studios.
I assume most sane people like variety in their game play. Don’t get me wrong, when I say sane …please be advised I use this term loosely. After all, where every sanity reigns, I am not likely to be a subject.

I would like to think I am perceptive. I feel I have a preternatural insight into how others behaving based on personal association or observation.

Which is Ironic when you think about it. Because I am grossly socially inept.
To continue my previous train of thought. I think sane people like to spend money wisely. Wisely as in: not buying a high tech version of the same product every year. Some studios seem to make this their Modus Operandi

As Shocking as this may be, I do pride myself on being a model of social etiquette. Yes… I said that with a straight face.
As such, I refuse to call names. However, it has something to do with Active sight, contemporary duty and Warfare.

A lot of persons complain about the game studio I mentioned previously. But I shan’t say whether or not they deserve clemency. After all..no one forces them to purchase anything.

On the other hand I. Yes, I. As in: ‘me’. I have more pressing things to complain about. Something that has more emotional weight.
I would like to acknowledge and tender my complaint of how Square Enix may or may not have traumatised me.

Here goes:

While browsing some music. I suddenly remembered this brilliant piece of music I heard from a game ages ago.
….For all you jaded souls. No this is not another post about music. Relax.

The music title: Final Fantasy VII Prelude.

While listening to this score. I suddenly remembered how cruel and unjust Square Enix was.
What did they do to me?

If you have never played Final Fantasy VII (FFVII) this might bear no significance for you.
However, it was one of my favourite games. Brilliant for its time.

Square enix created a sequence in FFVII where….where they killed someone.
I know, I know its a game. It isn’t real. People die in games.

The reality is, FFVII had a truly engaging story. With great characterisation. Characters had relationships, those who did not, developed them over the course of the game. With many beatrayls and acts of redemption along the path.
And a lot of women riding big yellow chickens. …Wait that didn’t sound right.

The rationalisation: Hey! Transportation in a open world sandbox game! You take it however you can get it.

Ahem..maybe it’s just me… but I swear the previous two sentences have a weird tone

The crux of my complain is this: Square Enix killed Aeris.

Ares was the love interest of the protagonist of FFVII. The creators of the game built up the relationship between Cloud – the hero – and Aeris. They waited for the moment when they relationship would have been realised. The moment after you have created connection to these characters.

They waited ..and then made the villain run a 10 foot long Japanese Katana through her abdomen. And Left her bleeding and dying in Clouds arms.
Now if that isn’t traumatic. Then my sanity – or lack thereof- is worse than I thought.

To make this worse. Cloud is an amnesiac clone of the villain. The man who violently murders Aeris: Sephiroth.
So in a sadistic and weird way. Cloud is the one that killed the woman he loved.
In the same way killing your clone would be considered suicide.

You can watch the video of the scene here.

If you watched that. Listened to the brilliant and tone setting score. And do not consider it tragic. Then you have no soul.

“Cloud: What is this pain? My fingers are tingling! My mouth is dry! My eyes are burning.”

The above are the words Cloud utters when the reality of Aeris’ death sets in.

As you can see Square Enix has traumatised me by allowing Aeris to die.

And if it bothers you that I can connect to a character that isn’t real. Please do understand I am actively able to suspend my disbelief.
Just so you understand what I mean. Suspension of disbelief: ” a willingness to suspend one’s critical faculties and believe the unbelievable; sacrifice of realism and logic for the sake of enjoyment”

What characters have you connected to of late in your play experiences?
And if you do not play games. Which novels have characters with which you have made a connection. Such that turning that last page, is like losing a good friend?

PS. Final Fantasy VII had some of the best music I have ever heard in my life! Whoever the composer or composers are. Kudos to you!

I wanted to start this post with the denotative meaning of the term customer service. However, I soon realised that had I done so, I would be bogged down in a mire of semantic explanations. This is mainly due to the fact that, Customer service and Customer service with a superlative modifier are not the same thing.

To be succinct: I believe customer service is providing support for your customers in relation to a product that they purchased from you. Good customer service is when you tailor your support and product in such a way to increase customer satisfaction on a large-scale, while simultaneously not padding your costs for services that should have been free with one purchase.

The new console cycle is upon us. Nintendo – like they have done since the N64 – have once again gimped themselves. For the sake of brevity, I will not go further than to say: They have once again released a console that while “innovative” seems to once again be lacking in graphical fidelity ( power) and unique experiences: A unit tailored for the casual gamer. (opinion)

Sony, unlike their last foray into the new console era, seems to have gone back to their PS2 roots: Really great and unique gaming experiences that are only accessible on their console. As well as striving to make a gamer dedicated console that is also at a good price. As opposed to their $600 (Six Hundred) base price for the PS3 last console cycle.

On the other hand Microsoft/ MS/ (XBOX) has done a complete 360. Herein lies my emotional dissonance. Like they have done with windows 8, Hotmail and Skype. MS has been forcing their customers to adopt unwelcome changes. They are free to do this of course, it IS there services. I can just choose not to use or buy them. However, MS has gone stir crazy with this “connectivity” trend. I do not wish to merge my MSN and Skype contacts and I do not wish to use Outlook over Hotmail. And now, the Créme de la créme if you were to purchase the new Xbox, whatever its name is Durango or Xbox 720. You will have to be always online.

I do not know about any of you. But I like to be in control of my gaming experiences. The new Xbox will pause/stop whatever game or app you have running currently should you be disconnected from the internet for three (3) minutes.

Lets look at this logically. If you want to play single player games and be offline, you will not be able to do so. If you want to be able to play any games if you do not have, cannot afford, or do not have current access to the internet. that $200-300 piece of GAMING technology you bought to play games; now becomes an expensive and large paper weight.

Think about it? You buy a Disk or Digital software that gives access to said game, you also have to purchase said console to access the data. Only to be thwarted by the fact that you do not wish to connect to internet. You have no CHOICE. No internet? No gaming on the new Xbox. Touché Microsoft, touché.

What is worse, MS is saying: If you don’t like it. Suck it up and deal with it. That is not good customer service.
Here is the post made about said topic on IGN.com in response to a twitter response from a MS rep: Ign.com

Well Ladies and Gents. Microsoft clearly has the customers interest at heart. I understand it’s a business, I understand it’s about money, I also understand it’s their product/ device and – as such – they can do whatever they please. However, I do not support companies with bad customer service. Nor do I support companies that seek to take away my choices or control how or when I use something I bought from them.

I certainly won’t be getting a Xbox or whatever they choose to call it this time: Netbox? TvBox? Connectivitybox? Alway online suck it up and deal with it box? You decide

I am a nerd. Or, at least , i think I am. One can never be too sure about these things and I would hate to lie to my-self. Lying to you, however, is something I would NEVER do.

While being a nerd used to be a pejorative, it is now 2013. And in 2013… okay scrap that. I have no clue what significance 2013 has on why being a nerd is now okay. But what can I say? 2013 sounds like the “future”: that magical place where things just seem to work out; or at least I think it sounds profound when I say it.

What I’m really trying to say is this: all the things nerds used to get laughed at for doing are now socially acceptable.

Quick side note: For all you nerds out there… No! no one cares how extensive your porn collection is. Of course, I don’t watch porn (just…. throwing that out there)

Why am i a nerd? FUS RO DAH!!!… (Ahem, uhh forgive my outburst there. For a moment I lost sight of the aim at hand.) Because I read Fantasy novels and play games. Those are nerd-like activities right? Socially inept as I am, I can never tell.
Anyway, to continue: If you play any games online, you have encountered people who do every thing but play the game how it is supposed to be played. This propensity to be annoying is what we call -in colloquial terms: Being a bitch (pardon my french). After dealing with people like this, you may suddenly be in need of extensive psychiatric assistance.

(And, just in case you were wondering. No I am not misogynistic nor am i throwing stones at women. This is a universal term.)
In more contemporary terminology we call (being a b**ch) Trolls. For those of you who like to play devils advocate, ( or honestly just don’t know). These aren’t the type that live under bridges. Though – I must admit- If they did, the internet would be a much better place – hypothetically speaking.
The game I play most these days – due to bandwidth restriction – is LOL.

Let me take a moment here. For the minute members of the human population who do not know. LOL does not mean laughing out loud; it means League of Legends. (although it can mean laughing out loud as well)
To cut my mental meanderings short. I play a lot of LOL/League of late. If you are familiar with this game, you would know ‘Tis the rift from whence Trolls emerge’. If you aren’t familiar with this game….Umm

What are Trolls? I am ecstatic you asked! Imagine, playing a game and in it there is this one fool; whose sole aim is to ruin your day while sitting at his desk squealing in girlishly sadistic tones of delight. In essence, a Troll is someone that does something solely to piss you off.

I don’t know the general reactions to Trolls. Aside form spontaneously combusting into paroxysms of rage. However, my reactions are all cerebral.
By which I mean I create improbable mental scenarios so that I may satiate my emotional dissonance by way of phantasmagoria images ( generally violent).

You may have noticed my previous statement seems precariously verbose. You did? Good! So did I.

Trolls are so wide spread lately, it has dawned on me: There are professional Trolls. People who have nothing better to do than make someone else’s life difficult. Dependent on your social influence, you may know them as haters. But lets not argue semantics.

I cannot understand the mind of a Troll, but I can attempt to demonstrate my hypothesis on the purpose of their existence. I will attempt to do this by way of a parody of a popular Hip-Hop song. [Brothers] in Paris. If you must know Its actually “N word” In Paris, but I would hate insult anyone’s sensibilities.
So here is my Magnum opus for this post – Besides the post of course.
I call it: Bitches In LOL

Troll so hard make Summoners wanna find me, But first I gotta go in hiding
Which lane am I supposed to be in? Somebody please remind me.
(Troll so hard) you sit raging, y’all don’t know that it don’t faze me?
Go 0/82 /0 and be like this shit gravy!
(Troll so hard) This shit weird, I ain’t even supposed to be here
(Troll so hard) Let’s be clear, when the team fight starts I’ll be farming else where
Psycho: I’m liable to go Mundo, take your pick
Executioner, Rageborn, Corporate. Masteries /0/0/6
(Troll so hard) Got a broken shop, buying items with the wrong stats.

Well, by you know you can tell I am not a Rap artist; but you get the drift. If you didn’t, you can always …ahhh Umm-. Okay, honestly, if you didn’t get it I failed as writer.
Actually, you and I both know I don’t believe that, and we wouldn’t want to start lying to each other now would we?